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Lankan bowling coach wants Malinga back

Sam Lienert

Sri Lanka's bowling coach hasn't given up on speedster Lasith Malinga returning to Test cricket, saying no one in the current attack has the firepower to take quick wickets.

The 29-year-old retired from Test cricket last year to specialise in the shorter forms of the game.

Bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake said coming off a serious knee injury, Malinga felt his body could not withstand the toll of the five-day format.

But after watching his inexperienced attack toil away against Australia in the first Test in Hobart, while Malinga dominated in the Big Bash League, Ramanayake admitted he would love to have him back at his disposal.

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"I would like to see him back," Ramanayake told reporters at the MCG on Thursday.

"Maybe he might reverse his decision.

"But he'll want to get fitter and stronger, (then) maybe he can reconsider his decision.

"At the moment, he's doing well for the short forms of the game."

Asked whether there was any chance Malinga might make a Test comeback for the final game of the current series, in Sydney in early January, Ramanayake said that hadn't been discussed.

"I would like to see him back in the team definitely, but it's his decision," he said.

But he admitted the Lankans could certainly use him.

"We haven't got really firepower in the team, someone like Lasith to come and take quick wickets," Ramanayake said.

"But they are very inexperienced."

He said with greater experience, paceman Shaminda Eranga was capable of becoming the strike bowler Sri Lanka were seeking.

The tourists are hoping the large Sri Lankan community in Melbourne will help their cause in the second Test, starting on Boxing Day at the MCG.

They are taking some confidence from having won their past three matches at the MCG, all one-dayers.

"The boys are excited to play here in the Boxing Day Test," Ramanayake said.

"The wicket might suit us."

He also tipped Kumar Sangakkara, who is 40 runs from becoming the second Sri Lankan to reach 10,000 Test runs, was building to "something special" after finding form with a second-innings half-century in Hobart.